Bulger attorney asks for case consolidation

The provisional attorney for former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger asked the court on Wednesday to consolidate the charges against his client from two separate indictments.

REUTERS

BOSTON - The provisional attorney for former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger asked the court on Wednesday to consolidate the charges against his client from two separate indictments.

A filing by Peter Krupp responded to the government's dismissal on Tuesday of the entire 1994 indictment against Bulger. Instead, the government hopes to focus on the 19 murder charges in a separate indictment from 1999.

A conviction on just one count of murder in Massachusetts could send Bulger to prison for life.

Krupp said in the filing that allegations from the two indictments were related, overlapping and in some cases identical. He called the government move "forum shopping" and a manipulation of the random case assignment process for judges.

Bulger is expected back in court in Boston on Thursday, where a judge could assign two prominent lawyers to take on the case of the aging gangster.

Bulger, 81, requested a public defender at his initial Boston court appearance on Friday, saying he could not afford an attorney. Published reports suggest Howard Cooper and Max Stern could be named to the Bulger case if a judge allows court-appointed counsel over prosecutors' objections.

The pair were in court for a another Bulger hearing on Tuesday. Neither returned calls seeking comment.

Stern was named one of Boston's best criminal defense lawyers in 2010 by "Law and Politics" magazine, while "Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly" named Cooper to its list of the state's most influential attorneys in 2009.

Bulger, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and his longtime companion Catherine Greig, 60, were arrested at their rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica, California, on June 22 after being on the run together since 1995. The pair had some $820,000 on hand, mostly in bundles of $100 bills.